Operation Barbarossa: The Largest Military Offensive In History

The battles of the First World War were battles of attrition, opposing armies hardly moving between lines of trenches. The battles of the Second World War were much more dynamic. We study tank battles, blitzkrieg, commando raids, amphibious landings, and mobile warfare in the desert.

Afghanistan's war has never truly ended, instead it's only shifted. Journalist Len Sherman returns to the country after first reporting there 20 years ago. This time he's visiting Kabul and its outskirts to explore the unrelenting conflict through the eyes of those who live there. From chaotic city streets to perilous frontlines, it's a haunting journey into a land caught between superpowers. War Stories is your one-stop shop for all things military history. From Waterloo to Verdun, we'll be bringing you only the best documentaries and stories from history's most engaging and dramatic conflicts.

In August 1941, the Allies launched Operation Dervish. This was the first of the Arctic Convoys, ships which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland and North America, and brought essential supplies to the Soviet Union. After the successful launch of Operation Barbarossa, the USSR was in desperate need of raw materials, fuel, military equipment and food. Realising the importance of keeping the Germans fighting on two fronts, Churchill offered a helping hand to Stalin. Though eager to cooperate, the task of shipping supplies to the Soviet ports of Murmansk and Archangel was not an easy task. Sailing up through the treacherous Northern Atlantic, the convoys were faced with some of the harshest seafaring conditions, including temperatures that reached -30 degrees Celsius, gale force 10 winds, towering seas, intense fog and drift ice. The sailors on deck also had to be wary of the continuous threat of icebergs. If this wasn’t enough of a challenge to the 78 convoys that made the journey to the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945, the merchant vessels also faced the serious possibility of U-Boat

How did Greece and Yugoslavia force Hitler's detour that delayed Operation Barbarossa? This Battlefield episode traces the chain of decisions that pulled Germany into the Balkans, exposed Ploesti’s vital oil, and reshaped the war in the East. After the 1939 pact with Stalin and victory in the West, Mussolini’s failed invasion of Greece in October 1940 drew British forces to the Aegean and threatened Romania’s refineries. Hitler answered with a lightning assault on Yugoslavia and Greece on 6 April 1941, taking Athens by 27 April. The diversion cost precious weeks; the invasion of the Soviet Union began on 21 June, reaching Moscow’s edge as winter closed in. As Churchill observed, Hitler had failed to notice that Russia had a winter. Air power then targeted fuel. Early raids on Romania were ineffective, but on 1 August 1943 B-24 Liberators from North Africa attacked Ploesti at low level, confronting flak, ME-109s, and chaos over the target. Fifty-seven bombers were shot down and 11 turned back, with little lasting damage. In 1944 the American 15th Air Force returned with long-range P-51 escorts. After

The Battle of the Bulge explodes in the frozen Ardennes as German tanks launch a last, desperate offensive - and American armor races to turn the tide of World War II. Step inside the legendary Battle of the Bulge, where Hitler’s massive panzer divisions smashed into thin American lines in Belgium’s Ardennes Forest. This gripping account brings you to the front lines, from the surprise German attack on December 16, 1944, to the fierce armored clashes between Tiger, Panther, and Sherman tanks. Experience the chaos, courage, and confusion as exhausted GIs and rookie tank crews fight to hold the line, and witness the daring counterattack by Patton’s 3rd Army to relieve the besieged town of Bastogne. You’ll discover how the terrain and brutal winter weather shaped this epic tank battle, why the Germans gambled everything on their final offensive, and how American resilience turned disaster into victory. Hear firsthand stories from soldiers trapped behind enemy lines, outgunned tankers facing the dreaded Tiger and Jagdtiger, and commanders orchestrating one of history’s greatest armored maneuvers. If you want a true sense of

The Coming War on China | Investigate Asia Documentary from 2016 The documentary "The Coming War on China, from award-winning journalist John Pilger, reveals how the world’s greatest military power, the United States, and the world’s second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, may well be on the road to war. The rise of China is viewed in Washington as a threat to American dominance. To counter this, President Obama announced during his term a ‘pivot to Asia’, which meant that almost two-thirds of all US naval forces would be transferred to Asia and the Pacific. A policy which has been taken up by his successor Donald Trump, who during his election campaign said: “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country and that’s what they’re doing”. Filmed on five possible front-lines across Asia and the Pacific over two years, the story is told in chapters that connect a secret and ‘forgotten’ past to the rapacious actions of great power today and to a resistance, of which little is known in the West. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Welcome to Investigate